Baby, you can leave your hat on…

I’ve been eyeing this hat at Copacetic for a month or two, and I finally bit the bullet and got it. It’s specifically designed for running! I’ve actually been pretty lucky so far this summer not to have gotten burned while running, primarily because most of my runs have been pre-dawn or in the first hour or so of daylight, but I’ll feel better having this hat in my arsenal for the occasions where that’s not the case. Besides, I don’t have to use it just for that purpose. I wore it out a couple of times so far, and, dude, in combination with my sunglasses, I feel positively shaded. Why did I and my pale skin and blond retinas wait so long?! I could use another couple, for when this one’s in the wash!

We went out and did Sam’s school shopping this afternoon. Predictably, there were a few squabbles, mostly over a pencil sharpener he really wanted but which wasn’t on his list. Kid, at least ten percent of your teacher’s complaints last year surrounded you fidgeting with things in your desk, and many of those incidents involved your pencil sharpener. If this teacher doesn’t specifically request that you have one, then we’re sidestepping that trap altogether! He still needs a few new items of clothing and some gym shoes, but we’ll do that when Gabe isn’t a complicating factor; he also needs a new lunchbox, having beaten the bejeezus out of his old metal one. Land’s End is running a sale on one that will hold his current water bottle nicely, and I have a coupon for free shipping, so we might go that route if I don’t find something better locally (the pickings are fairly sour, from what I’ve seen). I have no idea or recollection of what Gabe will need; there’s a school open house in a couple of weeks (the week before his school starts), so if I don’t hear anything before then, I’ll at least have a cushion after that to scramble for those items.

Ouch. My lips are burning from the pepper I put on my sandwich at lunch. Every time it dies away, I mindlessly touch my mouth, and the oils around my nails from chopping it up start the burn anew. If I were smart, I’d go wash my hands, especially before I rub my eyes or something, but… We have a bunch of peppers that need used up fairly quickly; what would be a good trick for that? (Putting them into salsa, for example, might not work because I probably wouldn’t work through it any faster than I will the whole peppers.) Cucumbers, too; Eric’s dad brought us a whole bunch of pickling cucumbers, and all the uses I’m finding call for English cucumbers that are somewhat sweeter. I don’t love pickles that much, and Eric hasn’t shown enthusiasm for making anything beyond the refrigerator pickles that take up valuable fridge real estate. And then there’s the corn, which both Ronnie and I purchased accidentally and which my boys (gasp!) don’t love, or at least not on the cob…

Sam is outside with my old digital camera, experimenting. He was feeling sad that his neighborhood friend hasn’t come out to play, so I sent him on his way with it. Wonder what he’ll return home to show me?